Consumer Responses to Bonus Pack and Product Enlargement Claims

In conveying product size increases, manufacturers use labeling tactics that can be classified as "bonus packs" (more for the same price) or "product enlargements" (more, but no mention of price). One study shows that when consumers do not know a product's original size and price, attitudes are more favorable toward a bonus pack than an economically equivalent product enlargement. This difference disappears when consumers know the original product size and price. A second study shows that, less intuitively, a product enlargement associated with a small (but not a large) price increase is evaluated as positively as a comparable bonus pack. The result for a small price increase and corroborating evidence support an account in which the product enlargement's economic inferiority is offset by consumer's use of the quantity discount heuristic. Implications for product manufacturers and consumer researchers are discussed.